"A Bridge Too Far 2007” Arnhem ASL Tournament
last updated: April 21, 2010
Results of the 2007 “A Bridge Too Far” Arnhem ASL Tournament
The 5th Edition of
the Bridge Too Far ASL Tournament in Arnhem (Netherlands) has been
completed.
On Thursday evening, 20th
of September, the ASL Tournament kicked off with 27 participants from 8
countries. Five more players joined on Saturday morning to take part in
a variety of Mini-Tournaments, making a total number of participants of
32.
14 Players competed in all 5
Rounds of the Main Tournament: the winner was Toby Pilling of England
with an unbeaten 5-0 record. He beat Bo Siemsen of Denmark in a
thorough and one-sided final of “Determination, Resolve and Grenades”.
Four Players ended the
Tournament with a 4-1 record in the following order: Bo Siemsen
(Denmark), Klas Malmstrom (Sweden), Melvin Falk (Sweden - defending
Champion) and Daniel Qvarfordt (Sweden).
The Zaitsev Award for the most
deadly Sniper was won by Klas Malmstrom (Sweden), whose sniper
accounted for 5 CVP during the tournament.
The Tank Buster Award was won
by Rich Domovich (United States), who destroyed a total of 20 Enemy AFV
during his five games.
The Winner of the “Infantry
Classics” Mini-Tournament was Jonas Hesslund (Sweden), who beat Liz
Mandishora (Zimbabwe) in the final. Liz was the only competing woman
and she defeated two defending mini-tournament champions on the way to
the final.
The Winner of the “Our Friends:
Designers” Mini-Tournament was Michael Hastrup-Leth (Denmark), who beat
Raymond de Waard (Netherlands) in the final.
The Winner of the “Knights of
Bushido” Mini-Tournament was Robert Maglica of Sweden, who beat
Francois Boudrenghien (France) in the final.
Thanks to our sponsors:
Multi Man Publishing,
Histofig,
Trojan Games and
Friendly
Fire for
their generous support.
Pictures
You can find some pictures at this
website.
Klas Malmström posted these pictures on his website:
http://www.klasm.com/ASL/AAR/ABTF_2007/ABTF_2007.html
After Action Reports
Bo Siemsen wrote this story about
this Greek Marathon Man (also check out the pictures he's referring to):
A quick story from the Arnhem 2007 Tournament. As always it
was a terrific event that I can only recommend attending. Thanks to
Peter, Liz, Hennie and who else helped make it happen.
****************************************************************************
This isn't really an after action report, just a funny event that took
place during the final game of the tournament.
There I was ready to play the final game. I was set to play against the
Tournament legend Toby Pilling. The Scenario was "Determination,
Resolve and Grenades". I was defending board 25 with greek squads armed
with Italian Artillery Guns. Suffice to say, I totally messed up the
setup and my plan was extremely flawed to begin with. Result, easy win
for Toby Pilling. That obviously isn't the funny event I'm referring
to.
Both of us preferred to play the Germans, he won the dice-roll and I
received an upgrade to my 9-1 leader. 9-2 leaders are nice. Usually.
This guy was set up ready to direct fire from the Heavy Machine Gun
manned by a Half Squad.
We begin play, first shot of the game. Toby's 88 opens up for an area
fire shot. NMC. Leader rolls snake-eyes and decides to go berserk.
Halfsquad can't resist and joins him . and before a sensible chap can
say "But, Sir, wouldn't it be better to shoot at the enemy with the
Heavy Machine Gun rather than run down attacking 200 Germans and their
5 armored cars singlehandedly ?" he has put on his running boots and
off he went . running down from his entrenchments in his level 4 hill
hex . down through the gully . up from the gully . sprinting towards
the nearest known enemy unit . but wait, where did he go ? . damn
Germans hiding from me . ah, I got it . those big 88's on the hill on
the other side of the valley . I'll attack those instead . sprinting
across the wide open valley . sprinting some more . climbing the hill
on the other side of the valley . getting in point blank against the 88
. but damnit, then that crew went into hiding too . thank God that
german halfsquad in the valley re-appeared from hiding I'll charge him
instead . down the hill, cross the gully, cross the hedge . game over ?
we lost ? damn, I'll try again in the next scenario.
* * * * *
For those interested in statistics. The 9-2 leader and the Halfsquad
spent 55 movement points trying to find some Germans to kill during 8
game turns entering roughly 45 new hexes during the charge around the
battlefield. Now where's the rules for Beserker exhaustion in ASL :-) ?
This brave fella was dubbed "The Marathon Man" and Toby kept humming
the theme from Chariots of fire (if you know that old Oscar Winning
movie it will be funny). He wasn't the brightest guy, but boy oh boy
could he run .
Check out the fine pictures from the Miracle mile:
Picture 1
In the foreground you will notice my Beserkers . in the background you
will notice the 200 Germans and several vehicles trying to squeeze down
Toby's left flank
http://www.wcfhl.dk/Arnhem/Arnhem01.jpg
Picture 2
shows the Germans hiding in the woods. Too much for Captain Montague .
he had to attack.
http://www.wcfhl.dk/Arnhem/Arnhem02.jpg
Picture 3
Waaaay in the background you will notice the beserkers standing
adjacent to an 88LL AT-Gun on the hill across the valley. In the
foreground you will notice the broken down greek lines viciously
exploited by the German Armored Cars right in the area that the HMG was
supposed to cover.
http://www.wcfhl.dk/Arnhem/Arnhem03.jpg
Picture 4
The German crew cleverly sneaks away leaving Captain Montague severely
confused, so he starts charging back downhill. (poor picture quality)
http://www.wcfhl.dk/Arnhem/Arnhem04.jpg
Picture 5
Toby has moved to my side of the table in order to get a better view of
his exit routes. In the foreground Tournament director Peter Struijf
looks thoughtful. (This picture is primarily shown to display the map
in the background - Narva '44. A new campaign being designed in
Denmark, still in the early playtest phases).
http://www.wcfhl.dk/Arnhem/Arnhem05.jpg
Best Regards
Bo Siemsen